Not Sure Why You're Not Making Money? Here's Why

Do you sometimes feel like you are working too hard, and with little or no money to show for it? It’s possible you are just wasting time doing things you should not be doing. There are ways to check what is eating into your time, and keeping you from achieving your money goals.

It is depressing to realize how swamped you are every day, when there is no visible change to your finances. The following are just some of the ways you can avoid being stuck in a rut.

1. Not Setting Goals

At the start of every week, you should outline all the things you hope to achieve during that week. Every morning, write a list of all the things you need to do that day, crossing them out in your weekly list when you complete each task.

At the end of the week, compile all the things you have achieved. Find out the reason why the unfinished ones were not completed, and propose to finish them in the coming week. Give the tasks a completion timeline. If you discover you have no concrete plans and you go through the day aimlessly, you know why the money is not flowing.

2. Not Planning

Do you make plans? You should set a plan for how you intend to achieve the day’s goals, and then the whole week. If you do not make plans for how you intend to go about, say, getting supplies that you know you need, then you are totally out of sync with your business. You won’t make much money without planning.

3. Have you set priorities?

If you are not setting priorities, you will not make any money. You’ll just waste a lot of time bustling up and down. You must set priorities in order of importance and urgency. This will essentially guide you when you make decisions. Some things may be important, yet not urgent. Setting priorities saves you time, and ultimately, money.

4. Do you divide large projects

When you have large projects, how do you go about them? Do you attempt to do the project in one sitting? That is a huge mistake. Breaking down a large project into manageable tasks allows you to finish the project on time, and minimizes mistakes.

5. Do you have a realistic outlook?

If you are not realistic, you will set yourself up for failure. Do not promise to finish a project just because you want to retain a customer. If you are not realistic, you will end up doing half-baked projects that will lose you clients, and money.

6. Do you track how you spend time?

Tracking how you spend your time is crucial. If you spend your time doing things that keep you from achieving your goals, you are in big trouble. Take the time to write down your activities. How long does it take you to finish these tasks? Include breaks, social media, reading and replying to emails. If you spend too much time on social or media catching up with friends, then you need to change that into a money-making venture.

7. You should set deadlines

Setting goals and having priorities is useless if you do not have any deadlines. You need to set timelines to help you measure your achievements.

It is not impossible to achieve things without a timeframe. It just means a project can drag on for as long as possible because you have not set any parameters. It also means you will take too long finishing one project, which takes up time meant for another project. This makes you less money, yet you have been busy! Set deadlines for projects, and religiously stick to the deadlines.

8. Schedules

Do you have schedules? You should have a schedule for everything you do. Schedule time for breaks, and time for social media and personal phone calls. Being self-employed requires a lot of discipline. Every decision you make, and how you spend your time, can make or break your business.

If you have to use social media to market your business, you should consider a Center Social Media Management System. These systems make you avoid navigating continuously between sites. They even let you schedule posts during the day, which means you do not have to spend all day online.

9. Do you acknowledge you need help?

Most entrepreneurs do not like accepting they need help, yet doing everything yourself eats into precious time and energy. Log into freelancer.com and hire a VA, or Virtual assistant, who is an expert at getting things done. You will save time and more money than if you did it yourself. You can also hire an accountant online, which will save on having to employ a full time one. If you insist on doing things yourself, that is why you are making less money.

10. Do you make use of technology?

Technology makes work easier. There are so many organizational apps available. Dropbox is one such example. It allows you to access all your documents from anywhere, and from any device. This means you can work from anywhere, using the right technology.

All you need to do is identify one that works for you. Doing business the old-school way will just slow you down and give your tech-savvy competitors a head start. Any wonder why you are not making money?

11. Do you make use of free time?

As an entrepreneur, you have limited free time. The only time you get is the downtime between flights, in waiting rooms or waiting for the subway. If you spend that time catching up with your friends on Instagram or Facebook, you are losing precious money-making time.

Using this time to accomplish pending tasks is a wise move. You need to get your business off the ground; wasting precious time on non-profitable ventures is why you have no money.

12. Do you overload your schedule?

Overloading your schedule tires you out and makes you liable to burnout. Do not be overly ambitious when creating a daily schedule. Make realistic schedules that at the end of the day will be more profitable.

A huge schedule only makes you feel overwhelmed by midday. Make small, achievable schedules and try to outdo yourself. You might add an extra thing to do which will be a bonus if you clear your to-do list earlier than expected. If you are not making money, yet you are busy all day, it is possible you are overloading yourself.

13. Do you have alone time?

It is important to have some alone time to catch up with all pending, but important tasks. Do you take time off; no meetings, no phone calls, and no interruptions? If you do, you can achieve your goals for the day. If you have too many distractions, they might end up costing you time and money, leaving your pockets empty.

You are in business solely to make profits. If you spend hours at something, it is only logical that you get returns on investments. If you seem to be spending all your time at work, yet cannot see tangible results, it is time for a change. You have to re-evaluate what your goals are, and what is keeping you from achieving them. If the bills are getting higher than your income, you must be doing something wrong, which needs to change.

How you spend your time counts a lot in business. You have to be careful to prioritize what is important or urgent. Make schedules that are realistic, and set deadlines for your projects.

Do you have any information you would like to add to this, or any questions? Feel free to post them in the comment section below.